Love Hurts (2025)

​"Love Hurts" stars Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Rhys Darby, André Eriksen, Sean Astin, and Cam Gigandet.  Released on February 7, 2025, the film has a realtor using his hitman skills to confront his brother.

The film featured the directorial debut of Jonathan Eusebio, the stunt coordinator for many movies like "John Wick", "Black Panther", and "Violent Night".  It's challenging to move on from a breakup, especially if it's with one that you truly loved.  Even though you act like everything's fine afterward, the revelation always comes around to bite you in the butt more times than you can count.  However, this particular breakup is an entirely different story, mainly when it involves a history as a notorious assassin.  This serves as the topic for the latest action-packed experience from David Leitch's 87North Productions, the company seeking to copy the success of "John Wick" with its fun and violent concepts.  This also marked this year's latest attempt to revamp the romantic cinematic vibes, thanks to its "love" story involving a generous man and his brutal past self.  "Companion" and "Heart Eyes" had their share of success in revitalizing the romance genre, so let's see if this action-comedy can do the same.    

The story follows Marvin Gable (Quan), a kind-hearted realtor with a perfect job and a happy life.  His career eventually hits a snag when he receives an ominous message from his former partner, Rose Carlisle (DeBose).  It's then revealed that Marvin was once a skilled assassin for a mysterious organization, "The Company", who helped Rose escape and left his life of crime behind to start fresh.  Things get even worse when Marvin discovers that his not-so-nice brother, the organization's leader Alvin "Knuckles" Gable (Wu), is hunting him down as revenge for his betrayal.  After reuniting with Rose, Marvin is forced to rely on his hitman skills to confront the past he left behind and his estranged brother.

This was another action film I was interested in checking out for multiple reasons.  One is, of course, the involvement of 87North Productions, which has a pretty decent track record in delivering entertainment in their straightforward concepts.  Except for "Day Shift" and "Kate", I've been impressed with the films it's put out throughout the decade regarding their executions and charismatic yet violent appeals.  So, I hoped that "Love Hurts" would keep this streak going with a former assassin turned realtor.  Another reason is Ke Huy Quan, who's just promoted from being in supportive roles to leading his own project, let alone an action comedy with a touch of romance.  Quan has made a comeback story for the decade after winning his Oscar for "Everything Everywhere All at Once", and he seeks to continue that with "Love Hurts".  With my revamped appreciation towards Quan, this was something I shouldn't pass up.  However, its surprisingly terrible reviews may have slightly damaged my optimism towards the film.  But then again, there had been several movies I watched that I enjoyed more than the critics, mainly because of my ability to judge them by their entertainment factor, not just their stories and crafts.  

Unfortunately, "Love Hurts" doesn't appear to be one of those movies, as its title reflects my disappointment with its execution.  When it comes to the storytelling aspect, "Love Hurts" is a lazy exercise of copying several plot elements from recent action movies and scrunching them together without a sturdy substance to bridge them.  It's not without a few diverting moments to keep my heart from being completely destroyed, but it rarely took advantage of them to make itself stand out from the action-comedy crowd.  In terms of its plot, "Love Hurts" is yet another action-packed tale of a seemingly normal person who's secretly a violent badass who worked for a secret organization, similar to other films from 87North Productions like "John Wick" and "Nobody".  I would also throw in Jason Statham's "The Beekeeper" for good measure.  In this case, the movie's protagonist, Marvin, is a former assassin who wants to live a peaceful life away from his controlling brother, Alvin.  However, Rose's involvement with a conspiracy prompted him to return to that former life to be truly free.

From a storytelling perspective, this should've opened the door for some interesting and amusing ideas in its world-building and characters.  Not to mention, it would've provided a compelling inner conflict in Marvin, who struggles to maintain his newfound life due to his violent history.  Sadly, it doesn't look like 87North has the right talent behind the scenes to make this concept work for me.  The screenplay was written by three people (Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore), which usually doesn't bode well in most cases such as this.  There were some scenes that could've worked well in the film's messages, genre cliches, and character depth, but the constrained and rushed nature of those elements prevented the movie from reaching the potential it was going for.  As a result, it became a barebones, formulaic, and messy reflection of genre imitation that lacked the heart and wit to overcome its heartbreak.  It's like the writers copied the homework of every other film involving a "former killer disguised as a normal person" trope and improperly stuffed them into a Valentine's chocolate box.  While they surely mean well in giving audiences what they want out of a straightforward action comedy, the lack of an expanded narrative and enticing character dynamics made it possible they won't make it past the first date.

Jonathan Eusebio became the latest stunt worker to step into the role of filmmaker, following in the footsteps of others like David Leitch, who served as one of the film's producers.  Eusebio has been involved with stunt work for many action movies, especially ones from 87North.  Considering how well the other stunt worker-turned-directors turned out, especially Leitch, I was pretty confident that Eusebio would wind up surprising me, too.  Sadly, that wasn't the case, as Eusebio struggled to provide consistency and nuance in the film's charming essence and genre cliches, mainly the unconvincing romance between Marvin and Rose.  The film's humor was mostly okay for the stunt work and Ke Huy Quan's charisma, but the director's approach to the pacing made the movie feel clunky and empty in its sentimental drive and character moments.  This is primarily due to its shockingly short runtime of 83 minutes.  While appropriate for a quick watch, this is another occasion where a runtime can affect a film's storytelling potential.  As long as the story is interesting enough to keep me engaged, it barely matters how long or short a film is.  But, if a movie is too short to expand its world-building and ideas further, there's a good chance we're not getting much bang for our buck.

Lucky for Eusebio, the film's fight scenes were the only redeeming factor of his vision.  Copying off the similar style from other 87North films, "Love Hurts" delivered a comprehensive sense of slickness and white-knuckled delightfulness into the violence and presentation to maintain the film's energy.  Not only was Bridger Nielson's cinematography respectable for capturing the hard-hitting stunt work on display, but the action choreography was also pretty decent, especially ones involving Quan.  For the latter, the first two fight scenes involving Marvin battling the assassins resembled some of the earlier Jackie Chan films, in which his stunts involve his use of props and comical timing.  I wouldn't say they're innovative in the stunts, but for those hungry for R-rated fist fights, "Love Hurts" gets the job done in delivering some violent joy amid its heartbreaking affair.  But even with its serviceable action, I feel that Eusebio may not return to the director's chair anytime soon.

As for the cast, the only actor who showed the most effort in carrying the film was Ke Huy Quan.  He has proven he can provide delighting charisma as a supporting actor, ranging from Short Round in "Indiana Jones" to Waymond Wang in "Everything Everywhere All at Once".  Regarding his diverting performance as the violent yet generous Marvin, Quan also convinced me he could accomplish the same goal as the main lead.  The only problem is that the film's script wasn't the right fit for him to convince everybody else.  Hopefully, this doesn't persuade him to stay in supporting roles because I was mostly satisfied with what Quan delivered in this role, even if it's not his best work in his comeback years.  Ariana DeBose continued to stumble in her filmography as usual.  However, her performance here as Rose was a tad more tolerable than what she delivered in "Kraven the Hunter", mainly because she was having a bit of fun capturing her character's wild side.  Marshawn Lynch also had a couple of amusing moments as King, one of the assassins hunting Marvin, although not enough to make him a standout, especially since coming off his successful feature film debut in "Bottoms".  The film also featured a "Goonies" reunion between Quan and Sean Astin, who plays Cliff Cussick, so if you grew up with "The Goonies", you might like this small piece of nostalgia. 

Overall, "Love Hurts" breaks many hearts for the wrong reasons, as it lacks many opportunities to mend its own.  Like most films from 87North Productions, the movie provided an entertaining essence in its action scenes, especially regarding its choreography.  However, regarding everything else, the company hits another unfortunate snag with an awkwardly paced and formulaically restrained imitation of some of its previous outings.  Ke Huy Quan made the most of his charismatic capabilities to carry the film in his leading role, and I admittedly had a swell time watching the stunt choreography.  But its mediocre direction, limited and rushed plot, weak characters, and formulaic script make this cinematic heartbreak all the more tragic.  If you enjoyed Quan in his other roles, then you'll likely enjoy him in this, although I would recommend waiting for it to stream for free.  It's certainly not as intolerable as the other two terrible movies I saw last month, but I can also see it not being the top choice for date nights.

D+